Emperor Akihito's visit to India not aimed at containing China, say Japanese officials

Japanese officials accompanying the Emperor Akihito stressed that the visit was 'purely non-political' and aimed at improving relations between India and Jaan. The officials hope the visit will build greater economic ties with India.

Japanese Emperor Akihito's seven-day state visit has nothing to do with his country's attempt to stitch a broader Asian coalition to counter China, officials accompanying the Emperor's delegation said.

"His Majesty's visit should not be interpreted as an attempt by Japan to counter our big neighbour China," says Sakutaro Tanino, former Japanese ambassador to India. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko's state visit to India beginning November 30 is the first by a Japanese emperor to South Asia.

Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko look at a Peepal tree on the premises of the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on Monday, December 2, 2013. They had planted the sapling when they last visited India as crown prince and princess in 1960.

The visit, however, coincides with rising tensions between China and Japan in the East China Sea. China declared a Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the disputed Senkaku islands on November 23 asking all nations to file flight plans and notify it before overflying it. On November 26, the US flew two unarmed B-52 bombers through it for two hours signalling that it did not recognise the ADIZ. Japanese officials accompanying the Emperor repeatedly stressed that the visit was 'purely non-political' and aimed at improving relations between the two countries.

(From left) President Pranab Mukherjee, Japanese Emperor Akihito and PM Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Monday, December 2, 2013. (Photo: Yasbant Negi)

The Japanese officials say they are keen to play down ongoing tensions with China. "It is a small issue related to a small island," says Tanino, who is also a counsellor in the Japan-China friendship centre in Tokyo.

The Emperor's visit is, however, no coincidence. It comes a year after Japan's right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office. Abe, who visited New Delhi during his first term as PM in 2007, had proposed a 'broad Asia' alliance of Asian democracies to act as a counterwieght to China's ambitions.

A proposal from India for the Emperor to visit Japan has been pending with Japan for nearly a year, but approved and announced in July just seven months after Abe took office as PM. The Ministry of External Affairs terms India's relations with Japan as 'singularly free of any kind of dispute - idealogical, cultural or religious.' Japanese officials hope the Emperor's visit this year on the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties, will build greater economic ties with India. India's bilateral trade with Japan, $14 billion, is dwarfed by the China-Japan bilateral trade of $ 68 billion.